TW: rape, molestation, coersion
I watched Dave Chappelle's most recent Netflix Special Sticks and Stones because I love me some Chappelle. I got into stand-up comedy when I went to college, and his jokes helped m to balance my academic lessons on political correctness, with the less-academic notion that everything can be funny if you tell the joke correctly. Chappelle has always been my favorite comedian as I delved deeper into issue pertaining to race and class. However this special in particular though was not Chappelle's best work, and is even particularly harmful in this day and age, and here's why:
The role of comedy
My biggest issue that I have with the special is that I have seen Chappelle use comedy to make people think. He is a cultural critic who examines social interactons, and very intentional about what he chooses to say in front of audience.
In this special, I did not see any effort made in being either critical or intentional. It seemed like Chappelle stood up, realized he had a special to do for Netflix, put on uniform (he loves those uniforms), and made jokes that provoked laughter so he can say he did his job. I laughed too, but the special being "good" had nothing to do with it.
The organization of this special did not nearly align to that of his past performances. And especially compared to his last special, we know that he has the potential to create conversation around his jokes for months on end.
We have already talked about "punching down" culture, which I know Chappelle does on the occasion, but I think the reason behind all of his anti-2019 political correctness is because black people (in the United States) are doing... better than we ever had. The issues that focused on predominately were issues pertaining to black people. But as these issues become increasing less mainstream, Chappelle has to find new controversial material to work with- his bread and butter.
And looking at the audience, you can see that he is speakin to black people. He was in Georgia! Therefore I believe that Chappelle felt like instead of preaching to the choir, he would talk about people who supposedly were not in the room.
Lack of research or preparation
Chappelle isn't walking the streets anymore, he isn't getting to know different types of people, and the biggest part about that is HE DOESN'T HAVE TO! He's Dave Chappelle. He doesn't look to black trans women when he thinks of who is on society's chopping board for today; he thinks to Louis CK, a comedian who was supposedly cancelled but who is STILL DOING STAND U- BY THE WAY! I watched one of his recent sets on Youtube last month (and to be honest, I liked that much more). What I gathered from Louis CK's set is that has been away, doing a lot of penance- which is what happens when you lose 30 million dollars. Dave Chappelle on the other hand has not seemed to research or have learned anything in the past couple of years; which again is strange since he had several moments of reflection in his past Netflix specials.
And let me just say, his takes on today's "cancel culture" were all over the place. And if you are EVER looking back in time and say that the past was better than today, you are doing too well in life to relate to the average person. Times are weird now indeed, but in no way are they better. It showed how out of touch he is with his country and the world. One joke I did laugh at was the idea of black people registering... for fire arms (in oppose to the more obvious of "registering to vote"). However I heard that joke so many times, I was able to say it before he did.
Michael Jackson, R Kelly, and other falling stars
Now, you know me, I love MJ more than everyone. I haven't seen the documentary because I know it will incriminate him and I'm a bad person. But it seemed to me like he used Michael Jackson because he was running out of examples of celebrities as victims. He doesn't care about MJ being dead... he didn't care about him when he was ALIVE! We know this from past specials where he spoke on these alleged cases of child molestation. In his special "Killing them Softly," Chappelle said he's "reserving judgement" on the cases. But when the documentary PRESENTED all the facts, he switched from "I'm reserving judgement" to "so what if he did do it?" That joke would've made sense at a time where society saw male rape/molestation as the butt of the joke, but now more people are understanding the life-time consequences that molestation has on child growth and development as well as the human psyche. and he KNOWS that too!
In the R Kelly jokes he only believes he committed the crime because R Kelly said the age of the girl on the tape 500 times. Chappelle established the threshold of empathy he is not willing to surpass at R Kelly, but Michael Jackson?
Trans jokes
Dave Chapelle still doing trans jokes makes me feel like someone is paying him big money to include that in his specials. They aren't good trans jokes, they're repetitive, and they point to his ignorance in regards to trans identity more than anything else. For one, it doesn't fit in terms of organization. You talk about the LGBs being oppressed, but then flip and make a "I'm Chinese and that's how I feel" type of joke. He has to be paid to say this because if not, he's not the comedic genius many people believed him to be. I'm not convinced at all that he finds these jokes as funny as he did 15-20 years ago. He destroyed Rachel Dolezal when she claimed she was black, because he understand what it means to be black and he understands the history of race in America. Or maybe he doesn't...
This special called to judgement his concept of racism. I can no longer believe that he is the "racism connoisseur" that he made himself out to be if he CANNOT see that all of these systems of inequality are intrinsically linked, created by the SAME imperialist capitalist white supremacist patriarchy. Chappelle is stuck in an rich American bubble where his black kids eat duck and he lives in a neighborhood where the only people breaking into his house are WHITE people.
It seemed to be that Chappelle was bitter because the average person now feels like they get a say in how they perceive culture, and aren't running to Chappelle for answers. He's bitter because like everything else put out into the world, he can receive backlash. He's bitter because he wants to tell the tired jokes but is realizing that they will soon get left behind as well as himself if he doesn't take some time to learn from the world he's been teaching for so long.